This is a blog about Watson's fight with canine lymphoma and the healthy changes we are making for his little brother Waldo. Watson was my best friend and my love; what we learned from Watson’s ordeal was not learned in vain.

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My work buddy

Watson's History

Watson, our beagle/basset mix, was adopted into the Frembes family in January 2005 at the ripe young age of 10(ish). He came to our house with his foster mother from the BONES shelter and I instantly fell in love. He had overcome an abusive past and had the facial paralysis to prove it, but he looked up at me and that was it. He was home.

After two years and seven months of wonderful, healthy years with us, Watson was diagnosed with lymphoma on July 18, 2007. He fought hard in a short amount of time. My sweet boy crossed the Rainbow Bridge on August 16, 2007. He is loved and missed.

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Hatchlings

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Thursday, August 16, 2007

The real title of this post should be “poo at 3am”. I awoke to the gentle sounds of him lapping at the water bowl only to look about and quickly realize that he had left us a present on the rug. Twenty-five minutes of Bissell-ing later, we were back to bed. Again awoke this morning around 7am to the sounds of him pacing the room, needing to go outside for a wee. Back inside, he wasn’t interested in any food (egg, chicken and risotto, dog cookie, toast).

As an aside, he perked up last night and was interested in a smorgasbord of food – he ate a 1/4 can of tuna, 2 spoons of Graham’s suggestion of chicken and risotto, and some crust from my tuna sandwich. In total, that was a good amount of food for him and I was relieved. I had Rich try to feed him since I think I was presenting myself as more nervous than anything. (Could it be that he just doesn’t need as much food as I want him to eat??)

Back to this morning, I gave him a shot of sub-q Reglan 5mg at 7:30am and waited. He was interested that Rich and I were eating breakfast, but didn’t really want anything from our plates. I do notice that he is drinking a ton of water, more than usual. He’s keeping it all down (good) but the volume has increased (bad?). About an hour after the shot, I was able to give him a 10mg Reglan and his metronidazole in a pill pocket. Otherwise, still no interest in eating real food… it’s been 2 hours post-shot and 1 hour post-pilling and nothing.

In short, here’s the summary of last night and this morning:

GOOD

- ate food last night

- still alert and interested in where I am/we are in the house

- stole the bully stick from Waldo and brought it into the other room

- seems to be resting comfortably after the Reglan (no fidgeting, moving about from bed to floor and back)

BAD?

- still doesn’t want to eat today

- volume of water intake has increased

- laying “flat out” rather than a more relaxed position

Trying to concentrate on work and not get anxious about it all. Still though, I left a message for our regular vet to see what I should do, if anything. We have an appointment with NEVOG (oncologist) tomorrow morning at 11am, about which I am already nerved up and worried about.

I do want to mention that, of all the support we’ve gotten, there is one person who never gets enough credit. My sister, Helen, is always the first to offer her care and skills as a nurse to help me out/calm me down. This is true during crisis situation and non-crisis situations. She wrote me last night: “Can you mention in your blog that you also have another sister that supports you and would do that for her pets too? I rushed a dying hamster (Scamper) to the vet hospital in Jackson at midnight when she was bleeding. Unfortunately, there is nothing to do for bleeding rodents in Mississippi in 1986. So, she had a great funeral and is buried by the Reservoir in Brandon, MS.” Helen, of all people, understands my need to help him as much as possible. Not that others out there like Graham (Prince and Tilly’s dad) and the folks on the Canine Cancer board do not, but it is comforting to know that a family member also supports your efforts and beliefs. Without that support (from family, from those around the world who have written me, and of course the calming, loving support of my husband), I couldn’t have kept myself together to care for him. A million times over, thank you.